Ghost of Judge John B Stickney

The Hugenot Cemetery opened in 1821 across the street from the historic City Gate in St. Augustine. This was followed soon after by a yellow fever epidemic that swept through the town, claiming many lives. Reported sightings of ghostly visions and orbs floating through the cemetery late at night are very common. The ghost of a girl in white who was buried in the cemetery has been said to appear standing on top of the City Gate. She was supposedly a victim of the yellow fever epidemic, but her body was left at the gate and no one ever claimed her. Thus, she was buried at the Hugenot Cemetery. Another legendary ghost from this cemetery is an old Reconstruction-era judge named John B. Stickney, who died on a long trip to Washington, D.C. and was buried in the Hugenot Cemetery. His body was later exhumed so it could be buried elsewhere, and somehow a couple of drunks stole his gold teeth in the process. Now, he haunts the cemetery in search of his teeth. Whether these specific stories have any historical truth, the Hugenot Cemetery is nonetheless rumored to be very haunted.

Bite or Smite

Bite or Smite

Rabbit was playing on a ledge at the second bend of the Hillsborough River when he saw a gator swimming by. Rabbit picked up a rock and tossed it at the gator and had a big laugh when it bounced off the gator’s back. There was an old turtle sunning on a log nearby. He stuck out his neck, looked up at rabbit and warned “Stay away from that gator, rabbit. By bite or smite, it'll get you.” Rabbit laughed at the turtle because he knew he was smarter than any gator. So, rabbit got the biggest rock he could find and rolled it right up to the ledge and teased the gator over by dangling his feet. When the gator came over, rabbit rolled that rock off the ledge and it fell right on the gator’s head knocking it out cold. Rabbit was so proud of himself he got down in the water raised up that gator's head and smiled at the turtle. Well, it turns out it was no ordinary gator, it had an second head growing right next to the first one. It had been hiding under water and, with a splash, it gobbled rabbit right up. Turtle just watched, shook his head and said “I told that rabbit, by bite or smite, it'll get him and, by the looks of it, smite got to do the eating today."

Bite or Smite is an old Tampa folktale recorded by R. Perez and A.L. Lopez in 1930 during their research on local superstitions for the Federal Writers’ Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Florida